Kingdom of David: The Saga of the Israelites

Since this is a documentary, I don't think there is any such thing as a spoiler. This review is designed for a documentary.

Byker has a definite agenda, and is very heavy handed in proclaiming History as what he decides it is. This is very usual for historians. And it makes for poor History, since only those who partake of certain views are allowed to pass college courses by professors. I've been there. I know.

First, the title is as misleading as you can get. There is a small piece about David, and almost nothing about the kings who follow.

In fact, Byker proclaims that most of the Old Testament figures are merely concoctions of Ezra and other later writers. The evidence he cites doesn't even begin to support that statement.

Likewise, neither does his evidence support any of his claims. He merely wants to write History the way he wants to write a fictional story. This is a pathetic documentary.

This DVD offers a refreshingly academic yet compelling story of the Israelites. Some may say it is not objective, but I suspect they have their own religious agenda. The production value is also high. I highly recommend this DVD to anyone who enjoys learning about the dramatic history of this religious and cultural community. I own this DVD so I can watch it over and over again. I have a keen interest in various religions and have seen many documentaries on Jewish topics. I think the Empires series truly excels at telling rich, long, complicated histories such as this. Viewers may need to be somewhat sophisticated to appreciate the effort and academic content, however.

"Kingdom of David: The Saga of the Isrealites" is a slickly made documentary about the history of the Jews. However, early on, you learn that the makers of this film have a specific slant and agenda. They clearly see the history of the Jews in the Bible to be not at all literal but full of nice stories that may be true in some ways but obviously cannot be true. Some viewers will obviously agree with this and others, not surprisingly, would be highly offended. My feeling is whichever group you are in, why watch the film? If you cannot enjoy a film which repudiates your Bible, you won't watch the film. And, if you think the Bible is just a bunch of nice stories, then HOW can you use this same book as a basis for your history of the Jews? Just my two cents worth and I can't see this show being particularly enjoyable to either camp.

This is yet another example of pro Jewish propaganda masquerading as history. A totally biased, one-sided attempt to portray the suffering of the Jews (which undoubtedly did happen) as a justification for the brutality of the modern state of Israel. It only interviews Jewish theologians to back-up its one-sided view without exploring the impact that the people had on others around them or showing it as part of a wider context. This did have the potential to be an excellent series as there are there are few series that cover this material. But it misses the objectivity by becoming very much a finger-waving "you must feel bad for the Jews because of this past" morality tale.If you like your history to be anything but objective,then this is the documentary for you.